The 91st Bomb Group (Heavy) was an air combat
unit of the United States Army Air
Forces during the Second World War.
Classified as a heavy bombardment group, the
91st operated B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft and
was known unofficially as "The Ragged Irregulars" or as "Wray's
Ragged Irregulars", after the commander who took the group to England.[1] During
its service in World War II the unit consisted of the 322nd, 323rd,
324th, and 401st Bomb Squadrons. The 91st Bomb Group is most noted
as the unit in which the bomber Memphis
Belle flew, and for having suffered the greatest number of
losses of any heavy bomb group in World War II.

From July 1, 1947, until its drawdown in February 1952, the 91st
Strategic Reconnaissance Group provided worldwide surveillance,
flying RB-29s, RB-45s and RB-47s as a subordinate component of the
91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing,
consisting of the 322nd, 323rd, and 324th Straetgic Recon
Squadrons, and the 91st Air Refueling Squadron
(Medium). The group was inactivated on May 28, 1952, as part of
an SAC-wide termination of groups as an organizational echelon,
while the wing and all subordinate units remained active until
November 8, 1957.

The group was activated in 1991 as the 91st Operations
Group. Between 1991 and 1994, and since 1996, the 91st
Operations Group, as part of the 91st Space Wing, maintains the
alert force of Minuteman IIIintercontinental
ballistic missiles maintained at Minot Air
Force Base, North
Dakota. Its three missile squadrons, however, have no
traditional link to the 91st Bomb Group and were previously part of
the 455th Strategic Missile Wing and 455th Bomb Group.

Training history and
movement overseas

Established January 28, 1942, and activated on April 14, 1942 at
Harding A.A.B., Louisiana, the 91st Bomb
Group consisted of a small administrative cadre without subordinate
units until May 13, 1942, when it was moved to MacDill A.A.B., Florida. There Lt. Col. Stanley
T. Wray took command of the group, and the four flying squadrons
assigned to the group were activated. The 91st received air crews
and began phase one training with just three B-17's available. On
June 26, 1942, the group (now consisting of 83 officers and 78
enlisted men) was transferred to the Second Air Force and moved to Walla Walla A.A.B., Washington to complete
phase two training, with two squadrons operating from satellite
fields at Pendleton and Baker Army Air
Bases, Oregon.

The 91st Bomb Group moved by squadrons to the United Kingdom,
beginning with the 324th Bomb Squadron on September 25, flying to
Gander, Newfoundland. The 324th made a
non-stop flight along the North Ferry Route on September 30,
landing atPrestwick, Scotland. The 322d Bomb Squadron
moved to Gander on September 30, and Prestwick on October 1,
followed by one day by the 401st Bomb Squadron. The group lost one
of its 35 bombers during transit when a 401st B-17 crashed in fog
into a hillside near Cushendall, Northern Ireland, killing 8 of the
crew and a flight
surgeon.

The 324th Bomb Squadron flew as a unit from Prestwick to
Kimbolton on October 1, followed by the 322nd on October 2 and the
401st on October 6. On October 10, the remaining squadron, the
323rd, flew to Gander from Dow. It did not reach Prestwick until
October 14, by which time the 91st had changed bases.

VIII
Bomber Command had assigned the 91st to Kimbolton intending it
to be its permanent base. The base was of war-time construction and
had not yet been reconstructed to Class A airfield specifications.
Intended as a light or medium bomber field, its runways were not
suitable for the combat weights of B-17s fully loaded with bombs
and fuel. Three practice missions in as many days indicated to the
staff of the 91st that the runway would quickly deteriorate and
Colonel Wray immediately consulted Col. Newton Longfellow, VIII BC
commander, who suggested Wray inspect the RAF Bomber
Command OTU base at RAF Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire
(52°06′N00°03′W﻿ / ﻿52.1°N
0.05°W﻿ / 52.1;
-0.05), to see if it might be
suitable.

Wray traveled to Bassingbourn, located four miles (6 km)
north of Royston. Not only was the base
more appealing from its closer proximity to London, but it had been constructed in 1938 and
was considerably more comfortable, with permanent brick buildings,
including barracks for enlisted personnel (in contrast to the Nissen huts at
Kimbolton), landscaped grounds with curbed roadways (Kimbolton,
like many war-time fields, was noted for muddy conditions); and had
already been re-constructed to a Class A airfield.

Wray contacted his staff and ordered them to prepare for
immediate relocation. On October 14, without prior approval, the
91st moved itself and all of its equipment to Bassingbourn in one
day and took possession of the station.

Combat operations and
tactics

The Memphis Belle, 324th Bomb Squadron

The combat history of the 91st Bomb Group can be ordered into
three phases. The first, from November 4, 1942 to May 1, 1943, saw
the 91st develop operational experience as one of the four
"pioneer" B-17 groups, creating doctrine and tactics. The second,
from May 1, 1943 to January 1, 1944, had the 91st in a leadership
role of the Eighth Air Force at a time when the expanding Bomber
Command struggled to establish air superiority without adequate
fighter support. The final phase, from January 1, 1944 to May 27,
1945, was as one part of a massive, systematic campaign supported
by a large force of escort fighters that brought to fruition the
strategic bombing concept.

First
phase of operations

The 91st Bomb Group began combat operations on November 4, 1942,
when it received a field order for a mission to bomb the submarine pens at Brest, France, later changed to an
attack on the Luftwaffe
airfield at Abbeville.
Thirty minutes before takeoff the mission was cancelled ("scrubbed"
in the parlance of that time) because of poor weather. These
circumstances were typical of those encountered daily by all the
heavy bomber groups in the autumn of 1942 as they pioneered the
concept of strategic bombing by daylight.

On November 4 the Eighth Air Force consisted of just nine
groups, two of which had been withdrawn from operations to be
transferred to North Africa and another to act as an
operational training unit (OTU) for replacement combat crews. Of
the six remaining units only the 93rd Bomb Group (a B-24 unit) and the 306th Bomb Group were
operational, and the 306th had flown just two missions.

The group's first mission was to Brest, France, on November 7. The target
was the Kriegsmarinesubmarine base, and was the first of 28
missions against the U-boat
force in the following eight months. In all, eight missions were
flown in November 1942, seven of them against the sub pens. The
last of these, on November 23, resulted in the disastrous loss of
two squadron commanders, the group navigator, the group bombardier,
and three of the five airplanes attacking.

In December 1942 VIII Bomber Command issued two-letter squadron
identification codes to be painted on the fuselages of the
bombers:

322nd BS - LG

323rd BS - OR

324th BS - DF

401st BS - LL

The 91st was made a part of the 101st Provisional Bomb Wing on
January 3, 1943. Its first mission to a target in Germany occurred
January 27, and it earned the first of two Distinguished Unit Citations on March 4
when it continued an attack against the marshalling yards
at Hamm, Germany, after all the
other groups had turned back because of poor weather conditions. On
April 17 the group led the Eighth Air Force on its first mission
against the German aircraft industry, attacking Bremen. German fighter reaction was intense and
sustained, and the Eighth lost twice as many bombers as on any
previous mission. The 91st had six B-17s shot down, all from the
401st Bomb Squadron.

During this phase the group received a substantial number of
aircraft to replace those lost of written off. However replacements
for lost crewmen were few and made by transfer of individuals. The
influx of replacement crews from the Combat Crew Replacement Center
at Bovingdon did
not begin commence until March, 1943. As the 91st developed combat
experience, it experienced a decrease in aircraft commanders, apart
from missing aircraft and wounds, from moving pilots into command
and staff positions. Without an adequate pool of replacements, many
co-pilots were upgraded to aircraft commanders.

Second phase of
operations

The second phase of combat operations, coinciding with the
implementation of the Pointblank
Directive to target German airpower, began in May 1943. The
Eighth developed in the next three months into a force of sixteen
B-17 groups and began attacking industrial targets deep inside
Germany beginning at the end of July. Col. Wray left the 91st on
May 22 to become commander of a new wing, the 103rd Provisional
Combat Bomb Wing. He was replaced by the group deputy commander,
Lt. Col. William Reid, formerly of the 92nd Bomb Group. Lt. Col.
Baskin Lawrence, who had been the deputy commander of the 91st from
its date of activation, had left the group May 1 to command the
92nd.

On June 25, 1943, a wholesale shifting of command officers
between the two groups occurred. Col. Lawrence departed the 92nd to
become commander of a new "Pathfinder" group drawn from a squadron
of the 92nd, and was replaced by Col. Reid, who left the 91st to
command his old group. The 91st received its third commander, Lt.
Col. Clemens Wurzbach, who had been Lawrence's deputy
commander.

During this transition period the 91st also had its first crews
finish their required combat tours and return to the United States,
including the crew of the Memphis
Belle. Of the original roster of combat crews, 32%
completed their tours, 15% were reassigned to other commands, and
the rest became casualties. At the end of June it also acquired its
most recognizable symbol, the "Triangle A" group
tail marking often used in films about
B-17s.

On August 17, 1943, the 91st Bomb Group led a mission
to bomb the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt, Germany, losing 10 aircraft.
This was the first of several missions between then and October 14,
1943, in which the Eighth Air Force, flying beyond the range of its
fighter escorts, suffered severe losses of aircraft and crews. The
91st had 28 aircraft shot down during this period, the most of any
group in the Eighth. The remainder of the second phase of
operations saw a suspension of deep penetration missions until
long-range escort fighters became available.

Until September 22, 1943, the 91st BG had been equipped entirely
with B-17F aircraft that had
not been modified for longer-range Tokyo tanks. On that date it received is
first B-17G, which would become
the standard bomber of the Eighth Air Force in 1944-1945. It
continued to receive B-17F replacement aircraft, along with the
B-17G's, until December 24, 1943.

Col. Wurzbach completed his tour of duty on December 12, 1943,
and was replaced by Col. Claude E. Putnam, a former commander of
the 324th Bomb Squadron, who returned to his old group from duty as
the commander of the 306th Bomb Group, where he had been pilot of
the lead aircraft on the first mission to Germany nearly a year
before. Wurzbach had commanded the group for 44 missions; Putnam
would command it for 63.

Final
phase of operations

The 91st Bomb Group won its second DUC as part of the six-group
task force attacking the Focke Wulf assembly factory at Oschersleben,
Germany, on January 11, 1944. This attack marked the renewal of the
heavy bomber offensive against targets in all areas of the German
Reich. Although losses were heavy (34 from the Oschersleben task
force and 60 overall), three targets were struck by over 600
bombers and a group of P-51 Mustangs was part of the escort
force.

From February 20 to February 25, 1944, known as "Big Week", the United States Strategic Air Forces
conducted Operation Argument, a campaign against the German
aircraft industry with the goal of achieving air superiority over
Europe by drawing the German fighter force into combat. 800 to 1000
bombers, escorted by 700 to 900 fighters, struck multiple targets
daily from both England and Italy. The 91st flew all five days, losing ten
aircraft, and on February 24 attacked Schweinfurt for the third
time.

The first attack by the 91st on Berlin came on March 6, when it led the entire
Eighth Air Force at a loss of 69 bombers (6 of them from the 91st),
followed by half a dozen more to the German capital in the next two
months. On May 12 the Eighth Air Force began a costly campaign
against oil and synthetic oil production facilities that continued
to the end of the war. On May 17, Col. Putnam completed his tour as
commanding officer of the 91st Bomb Group and Col. Henry W. Terry
took command, which he would retain for 185 missions to the end of
hostilities in Europe. Aided by the use of radar-equippedPathfinder force bombers, the 91st BG
averaged a mission every other day for the remainder of the
war.

Beginning March 16, 1944, the 91st began receiving replacement
B-17's that were by a change in USAAF policy no longer painted olive
drab, and the bomber force became almost completely "natural
metal finish" by July 1944. The 1st Combat Bomb Wing, of which the
91st was a part, adopted the use of a red empennage and wingtips in June
1944 to more easily identify its groups during assembly for
missions. The 91st retained its "Triangle A" tail marking as
well.

File:Fw190 A8.jpg

Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-8 in 1944

The intensity of operations during this phase is reflected by
the 100 B-17's lost by the 91st Bomb Group during 1944, compared to
84 in 1943, despite the diminution of the Luftwaffe during the
spring and summer. Radar-directed flak became very proficient in defending
critical targets and the fighter force hoarded its pilots and fuel
for occasional mass interceptions of the bombers.

The 91st BG experienced its worst loss of the war during this
period on November 2, 1944, when it attacked the I.G. Farbenindustrie A.G.synthetic oil
plant at Leuna, southeast of Merseburg, Germany.
Suffering several losses to intense flak, for which this target was notorious,
the 91st found itself isolated from the bomber stream at the
division rally point, where it was attacked by large numbers of Fw 190A-R8sturm fighters of IV./JG 3. In all, thirteen B-17s of the 91st
were shot down out of 37 dispatched and half of the remainder
suffered major battle damage. 49 of the 117 crewmen aboard the
Fortresses were killed and the remainder captured.[2]

The 91st Bomb Group experienced its final aircraft loss on April
17, 1945, and flew its last mission, to Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, on April 25. The 91st
had been alerted for 500 combat missions, of which 160 were
scrubbed or recalled and 340 completed. Immediately after VE Day, it
flew three days of operations to rescue Allied POWs incarcerated at Stalag
Luft I in Barth, Germany, as part of
Operation Revival, bringing out 2,032
prisoners.

Casualties

The 91st Bomb Group had at least 392 B-17's assigned to it at
some point of the war. Of these, 40 were transferred to other
commands, 37 were retired as unsuitable for further operations, and
71 were on hand at the end of hostilities. The rest were lost: 197
in combat, 37 written off, and 10 in training crashes. Of the
combat losses, the 401st and 323rd Squadrons each lost 55, the
322nd Squadron lost 49, and the 324th Squadron 38.

Approximately 5,200 crewmen flew combat missions for the 91st
from 1942 to 1945. 19% were killed or missing (887 KIA and 123
MIA) and
18% (959) became prisoners of war. 33 others were killed in flying
accidents. Of the 35 original crews to arrive at Bassingbourn, 17
were lost in combat (47%). Daily records indicate that for the
first six months of operations, 22 of 46 listed crews were lost
(48%).

The fatalities in the 91st Bomb Group, equivalent to an infantry
regiment in numbers of combat personnel, exceeded the
killed-in-action of more than half (47) of the Army's ground force
divisions, and equalled or exceeded the rate of killed-in-action in
the infantry regiments of 35 others. Only seven divisions (all
infantry) had killed-in-action rates higher than the 91st BG.[3]

The air echelon left Bassingbourn on May 27, 1945, and moved to
Drew
AAB, Tampa, Florida. The ground echelon sailed on the
RMS
Queen Elizabeth to New York on June 24. The group reunited on
July 2, to prepare for transfer to the Pacific Theater,
but many members had been transferred to other units and no further
training was conducted before the war ended. The group was
inactivated on November 7, 1945.

Following the war the group was redesignated the 91st
Reconnaissance Group, assigned to the Strategic Air Command, and
activated on July 1, 1947 at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. After the United States Air Force became
a separate service, the 91st was redesignated the 91st
Strategic Reconnaissance Group on November 10, 1948, and
made a part of the 91st Strategic
Reconnaissance Wing. It operated a variety of aircraft,
including B-17's, RB-17's, B-29's and RB-29's, and B-50's.
On July 6, 1950, it was redesignated the 91st Strategic
Reconnaissance Group (Medium) and equipped with the jetRB-45C. The group was
removed from operations on February 10, 1952, when its squadrons
were assigned directly to the wing, and inactivated on May 28,
1952.

The organization was redesignated as the 91st Operations
Group on August 29, 1991, and activated at Minot Air
Force Base, North
Dakota. on September 1, 1991. Inactivated on July 1, 1994, it
was again activated on February 1, 1996. The 91st OG is responsible
for the operations of three missile squadrons maintaining a nuclear
alert force of 150 LGM-30G Minuteman
IIIICBMs
and 15 alert facilities spread across 8,500 square miles
(22,000 km2) of territory. The squadrons of the
91st OG are:

Significant members
of the 91st Bomb Group

1st Lt. William J. Crumm, 324th Bomb Squadron

Lt. Crumm was an original member of the group and flew eleven
of its first seventeen missions. He and his crew were the first to
return from combat, assigned on February 14, 1942, to return to the
United States to prepare a training manual for bomber crews.
Promoted to lieutenant
colonel, Crumm later commanded the 61st Bomb Squadron, 39th
Bomb Group of the Twentieth Air Force, operating B-29s against
Japan. He went on to become a major general in the
United States Air Force and
died in the mid-air collision of two B-52 bombers on July 6, 1967, returning
from a mission to South Vietnam.

M/Sgt. Rollin L. Davis, 323rd Bomb Squadron

M/Sgt. Davis was a maintenance line chief in charge of B-17
42-31909, nicknamed Nine-O-Nine
(pictured above), which completed 140 missions between February 25,
1944 and the end of the war, at least 126 in a row without turning
back because of mechanical failure, for which Sgt. Davis received
the Bronze
Star.

Colonel Klette flew 91 bomber missions as a co-pilot and pilot
with the 306th Bomb Group, and as a
command pilot with the 91st. Over 30 of his missions were as group,
wing, division, or air force mission commander while serving with
the 91st BG. His 91 sorties are the most by any Eighth Air Force
pilot in World War II.

91st Bomb Group in film
and literature

John Hersey,
The War
Lover, a 1959 novel and film (the novel uses the fictional
base "Pike Rilling" as its locale and an unnamed group, but all
details of the novel are taken directly from 91st BG daily
records)

The tail markings of the 91st were used as those of the
fictional 918th Bomb Group in the film and television series Twelve
O'Clock High. At least one incident, a mission to Hamm on
4 March 1943 in which all the other groups except the 91st turned
back for bad weather, was also portrayed in the film.

Sam Halpert, A Real Good War, a semi-autobiographical
account of a 35 mission tour with the 91st Bomb Group.

91st Bomb Group B-17's on
exhibit

Shoo Shoo Baby at the National Museum of the United States
Air Force before reversion to its original nickname

B-17F serial 41-24485-10-BO, 324th BS, marked DF A, Memphis Belle, combat November 7, 1942
to May 19, 1943. Currently undergoing restoration after being
received by the museum in October 2005.

B-17G serial 42-32076-35-BO, 401st BS, marked LL E, Shoo Shoo Baby, in combat March 24,
1944 to May 29, 1944, crash-landed Malmö Airport, Sweden. Repaired in Sweden, it had been used as
a civilian transport and recovered in 1972, where it was
dismantled, taken to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, for restoration,
and turned over to the museum on October 13, 1988. Due to the
amount of skin work required to restore its wartime appearance, it
is finished in olive drab and grey, instead of bare-metal as it was
during its USAAF service, and has been restored to its original
name, Shoo Shoo Baby.

References

Notes

^
Havelaar, Marion H., and Hess, William N., The Ragged
Irregulars of Bassingbourn: The 91st Bombardment Group in World War
II. ISBN 0-88740-810-9